[sdiy] TI to buy NatSemi!!!!!

[David G. Dixon]

> > Most of the kids graduating from those programs can't
> 
> Could that be because teachers are afraid to tell them the 
> mnemonic they used ?
> http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?t=124209

Oy.  There are simply no winners in that story at all.

However, on a less queasy note, here's another pathetic tale for you:

One of the electronic component shops here in Vancouver stocks an alarmingly
complete collection of light blue 1% resistors with five colour bands, which
are arrayed along one wall of the shop in little baggies (10 for 50c).
However, the standard values are only represented by the customary tan 5%
resistors with four colour bands.  If you want 1% resistors in standard
values, you have to ask at the counter, and they'll rustle them up for you
from the back.  I personally find this very annoying.  I asked the
shopkeeper why this was, and he said it was because the students who come in
to buy parts for their school projects can't read the 1% resistors, so they
refuse to buy them.  Indeed, he would prefer only to stock the 1% resistors,
but he has to carry the 5% ones for just this purpose.  I actually made a
nice little colour poster illustrating how to read both types of resistors
and gave a few copies to the shop to hang on the wall, but the buggers never
put them up.